


The Fire and the Flood

by itskatsa



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate! Team 7, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Tenten (Naruto), BAMF Yamanaka Ino, Bisexual Uchiha Sasuke, Compulsory Heterosexuality, F/F, F/M, Found Family, Gaara's basically a sandbender so why not, Lesbian Haruno Sakura, One-Sided Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, Unrequited Crush, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27767800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itskatsa/pseuds/itskatsa
Summary: In the shinobi world, loss is commonplace. Likewise, grief is an often-visiting, uninvited guest. Sayuri's grief is like water: ranging anywhere from a gentle rain to a violent flood, but never truly gone. Sasuke's grief is like fire: ceaseless, ever-hungry, and easily triggered. Sayuri is unnerved when her childhood friends are placed on a completely different team from her. Sasuke is irritated by having to be placed on a team at all, and it's only slightly outweighed by the fact that at least one of his teammates won't be a hindrance. But neither of them know what to expect from one another, and where to go from here. Especially since Naruto, the Number-One, Unpredictable, Knuckle-headed Ninja is their third teammate.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

“Keep running, and don’t look back. We’ll be right behind you, I promise.” Sayuri’s mother’s hushed tone provided no solace at this moment. Her back was flush against the local steamed bun shop’s rear side. The elderly couple who owned the place always gave Sayuri a free bun on her birthday and smiled kindly. Now, she was never going to see them again. 

“I don’t understand why we have to leave. I’m scared. I don’t want to go!” Her dread-filled protest was met with sudden urges to be quiet. Her father, Gorou, stood the furthest from her, his kunai drawn as he inspected the alleyways behind them. Her mother, Momoko, crouched down in front of her, rushedly wiping away tears that Sayuri hadn’t realized were running down her face. 

“I need you to be brave right now, okay? I need you to run as fast as you can towards the shore. Don’t stop until you get into a boat. Can you do that for me?” There was no moon tonight, so Sayuri could only rely on the two working street-lights to make out Momoko’s expression. Her deep green eyes, typically sparkling with humor, were frantically darting around in every direction around them. To Sayuri, it had become increasingly evident that both her parents were shaken to their core. She had never even seen them nervous before, let alone as terrified as they were now. 

She swallowed a dry lump that had settled like sand in her throat and nodded. She couldn’t bring herself to speak. “Good,” her mother said. Momoko then leaned around Sayuri and poked her head around the building’s corner. “Okay, go now.” Her hands found her daughter’s shoulders and ushered her forward. Sayuri took a large inhale through her nose and felt her chest inflate to the point of aching. She needed a moment to build her resolve, and then she was running. 

Her heartbeat drummed louder than a storm, turning the sudden sounds of shouting and metal ricocheting off itself into distant white noise. Her legs felt like they had a mind of their own, pushing her at a speed she didn’t know she was capable of, as if the world around her was struggling to keep up as opposed to her scrambling to escape it.

Sayuri had to be at least fifty feet away from where she last saw her parents when she felt something hard and light shoot through her hair and alarmingly close to the back of her neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a kunai lodged into a brick wall where her head had been a split second ago. The kunai had strands of her light-brown hair dangling from the blade. 

_ Someone’s trying to kill us.  _ The thought ruptured in her head, shaking her resolve. She stopped and turned to look behind her. Her father was suddenly only a few feet behind her, his left cheek adorning a fresh slice wound. She looked from him to the scene distantly behind him. Momoko was lying on her stomach, the ground soaked in her blood. Her back had become a sickening and unwilling sheath for their adversaries’ kunais. 

The sight made Sayuri’s knees buckle beneath her. She and her mother locked eyes for a brief moment. Her mother’s expression twisted from anguish to horror as she realized that Sayuri wasn’t moving. She screamed something at her daughter, but it was to no avail. Her Sayuri’s head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. 

“M-mom,” she said weakly, her voice barely above a whimper. Her hands trembled violently as she reached out to her mother. The silence around her slowly began to fade as the sounds of the mid-village brawl began to swell into its place. 

Two coarse hands secured themselves underneath Sayuri’s arms, and she was quickly hoisted from the ground. Her father had snatched her up and was sprinting towards the shore. She stared in horror over his shoulder as they kept getting further and further away from her mother. “We can’t leave her!” Her own voice sounded foreign and waspish to her. “Dad, we have to go get Mom! We can’t leave her; they’re gonna hurt her!” 

Her father didn’t answer, nor did his pace falter. She couldn’t bear to look anymore and buried her face in her father’s shoulders. The ground beneath his feet crumbled away all at once, and suddenly Sayuri was falling. Her father disappeared, seemingly into thin air. All her instincts told her at once not to open her eyes. 

Her fall was beginning to feel endless. Would she ever reach the end of this empty pit? The air around her felt freezing as if frost was slowly accumulating on her skin. She trembled at the frigid gusts of wind buffeting and jostling her. 

Within the next instant, the air shifted dramatically in temperature. The sudden humidity was so jarring to Sayuri that she opened her eyes and looked around her reflexively. Beneath her was the ocean, stretching endlessly far and deep. Waves rippled along the water's crystalline surface. It would probably look more inviting if she wasn’t falling at an alarming speed and height into it. There was nothing to hold onto anywhere around her, nothing to catch her fall.

As she rapidly approached the surface of the water, a scream finally wrangled free from her numb state. Sayuri squeezed her eyes shut once more and braced for impact. She expected to feel bones breaking or at least a stinging pain along her skin from falling so far, but no such thing. Her crashing into the water was surprisingly gentle as if she had only dropped a few feet. 

Sayuri had yet to open her eyes when a strong tide began pulling her further into the empty water. The force of the wave managed to keep her upright and able to observe everything around her as she glided through it. A spray of bubbles followed her like a shadow as she propelled through the ocean. Her watery surroundings were utterly lifeless, with no flora or fauna to be found. 

Her momentum finally slowed to a complete halt as she clumsily collided with an unusually high sandbank. Sayuri crawled further up the bank until she reached the top. Where she had anticipated the other side of the bank to be, there was instead a crater meters beneath where she peered over the edge. It was deep enough to where the sunlight could not illuminate the bottom entirely. If she squinted hard enough, though, she could almost make out two figures sitting there. 

Feeling bold, Sayuri moved her legs to meet where her hands laid at the tip of the ridge. Her position was similar to that of a frog waiting to leap. She kicked away from the edge of the bank, the force of the motion accelerating her descent to the underwater crater. If she swam deeper, she wouldn’t be able to see. She settled on floating a meter or so above the figures. And though she couldn’t explain to herself why she felt compelled to extend her hands to them. So she did.

One figure noticed her right away and took her hand with no hesitation. It felt exactly the same way a human hand felt when it touched her. She smiled and looked at the other figure. It made no move towards her whatsoever. Sayuri thrashed her empty hand around in the water, hoping to catch its attention. Her heart lurched when it ignored her. Something about this felt very time-sensitive. It was as if the figure would dissipate if she couldn’t reach it. 

“Sayuri.” 

She whipped her head around, looking for the source of the voice calling her. The figure that refused to acknowledge her began to move and shrank itself back against the crate floor to escape her. 

“Sayuri, if you want breakfast, you better get up now.”

_ Breakfast?  _ Slowly, her surroundings fizzled and faded into nothingness. Sayuri looked all around her before looking towards the figure holding her hand. It showed no reaction to the voice she was hearing or the disappearing environment. It was utterly still. 

All at once, the world around her flooded with darkness and disappeared just as quickly as she opened her eyes. The tan ceiling above her grounded her in reality immediately.  _ What on Earth did I just dream about?  _ Sayuri questioned. She sat up in bed and cast aside her blankets as if they would burn her to be left on a second longer. The more distance she could put between herself and that dream, the better. 

"You alright there, kiddo?" Her father’s voice cut through her brain fog with ease. She looked over at him as he leaned against the doorframe of her bedroom, his head slightly inquisitively cocked to the side. Sayuri met his eyes and relished in the comfort his presence brought. He could always approach a situation with a level head and had a knack for settling others’ anxieties. 

“I dreamed about us leaving the Hidden Mist Village.” Her throat constricted as she spoke as if it were tied via pulley to the stone settling in her stomach. Gorou’s serene expression melted into a wistful, empathetic one. He stood up straight and strode into the room. He placed his hand tenderly on the top of her head and lightly ruffled her hair. They shared the same thick and unruly golden-brown hair.

"Let's get you ready for today, okay? And you can talk to me about it if that will make you feel better." Gorou spied a hairbrush on Sayuri’s bedside table and began to untangle the tumbleweed formerly known as her hair. 

"I don’t really want to talk about my nightmare. I just...I wish she was here. I miss her all the time, but especially today. I never knew how bad I wanted her to see me graduate from the Ninja Academy until today," Sayuri said as she shifted her seated position on her bed around to allow her father to get her hair situated. 

“I know. And she would be so proud of you, Sayuri.” Gorou’s voice had a slight croak to it as if he were trying to hold back tears. His daughter’s eyes trailed over to her bedside table where her Hidden Leaf forehead protector laid. It still didn’t quite feel real that she was officially a ninja now. And even though she was, she couldn't say her faith in herself was fortified. 

Sayuri had never expected to pass with flying colors. Of course, Sasuke Uchiha had taken the title of number one rookie; but it was safe to assume that Sayuri was probably somewhere comfortably in the top five of her class. She’d always been commended for her speed and natural aptitude for Ninjutsu, but her lack of strength and stamina weighed her down. Sayuri was at her weakest in a fight that was drawn out longer than she could handle. Which, in her case, was a disappointingly small amount of time.

With her insecurities still weighing heavily on her mind, Sayuri sighed. She muttered a quiet "I hope so,” her eyes still glued to her headband. The familiar sensation of her father’s hands weaving her hair into a tightly-laid braid aided a little in loosening the knot of anxiety that had settled in her stomach. 

“I can't believe you're all grown up already. I missed so much of you growing up when I was away on missions. I don't remember you having quite as much hair to braid as you do now.” It was true. Her hair was getting long. It wasn’t quite as long as Gorou’s — his hair easily reached his waist. 

Once her hair was plaited and secured, Gorou clapped his hands against the tops of his thighs and stood up. “Alright, enough sentimentality. I’m gonna go finish up breakfast. Come out and get some before you leave, got it?” He was almost down the hall already as he finished speaking, leaving his daughter to get dressed.

Sayuri crossed the room from her bed to her wardrobe and flung its cream-colored doors wide open. She rifled through her various, brightly-colored clothes. She inspected a lilac dress before deciding against wearing it. Instead, she decided on a peach-colored yukata-inspired top and skirt set with soft, teal-colored trimming. This top’s cross-section hugged her shoulders unlike an actual yukata, so Sayuri elected to use the standard Shinobi’s wrappings to cover any revealed skin.

She inspected herself in her rectangular standing mirror. Her sleeves billowed a tad at her wrists, and she was sure that being able to conceal a kunai within them would be useful later on. Her skirt brushed at her knees and had a very narrow opening at the left and right sides to allow easy movement. Her pelvis and thighs were covered in the very same wrappings as her chest and neck. Sayuri looked from her reflection to the Hidden Leaf headband resting in her palms. 

Her father wore his leaf headband on his forehead, as did most other ninjas from what she could see. But, if she did that, then she’d squish the two long braids her father had styled for her. To avoid damaging his handiwork, Sayuri decided to tie her headband around her neck just loosely enough to sit comfortably at her collarbone. 

“Sayuri, you have  _ five _ minutes to eat if you don’t want to be late!” Her father called from the kitchen. 

“Be there in a second!” She responded.  _ Get it together, girl—no time for graduation jitters today.  _ Sayuri thought to herself. She lightly clapped her hands against her cheeks to hopefully hype herself up a bit more for the day. Finally, she ripped herself away from the mirror and scurried towards the kitchen to vacuum up as much breakfast as humanly possible. 

* * *

“Did you forget how to eat today? You have rice on your face.” This was Sayuri’s friend Hisoka Ito’s way of saying “good morning”. He was famous for being unable to read a room or follow social cues. Despite this, everything he said usually came from a place of genuine care. He was a few inches taller than Sayuri and significantly more muscular. He had a stocky and athletic build. He had curly, coppery-blonde hair that hung a few centimeters above his chin. His hair was contrasted by his chocolate brown eyes and dark eyelashes. 

“Hisoka, would it kill you to be polite for a minute?” Masashi Tabe, Sayuri’s other close friend, chimed in. His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose, his black eyebrows knitted together in exasperation. Masashi’s skin was a warm, mocha color that was darker than Sayuri and Hisoka’s complexion. He seemed to already be nursing a headache despite how early in the day it was. 

"It's just a question. Wouldn't it be worse for me to just let her walk around with food on her face?" 

“That’s not--” 

“Guys, guys,” Sayuri interrupted, “It’s way too early to start this. Okay, I  **did** wake up sorta late, so I was in a rush to eat. But if we stand here bickering instead of walking, we’re gonna be late to our graduation ceremony.”

Sayuri, Masashi, and Hisoka had all been friends since they were children. They lived next door to each other, and their parents often set them up on playdates when they were toddlers. As they got older, they fell into a tradition of walking to the Academy together each morning. This usually consisted of Masashi and Hisoka waiting for Sayuri outside her front door, as their houses were located further away from the Academy.

Their house proximity was also a big help for Gorou, as the Tabe and Ito families were more than willing to check up on Sayuri when he went on long missions. Hisoka, his mom, and his older brother were the only ones in his family who were ninjas. That left his father and his eldest sister to keep the household running smoothly regardless of when the rest of their family were out on missions. 

As for Masashi, he didn’t come from a ninja family like Sayuri and Hisoka did. He and his younger siblings were the only ones who were interested in attending the Academy. They were twins, and one sister was rarely seen without the other. His parents were diligent and strict, which didn’t always mesh well with Gorou’s relaxed and gentle approach. They’d had words before about the way they would scold Sayuri when Gorou was away. 

“You’re right,” Masashi said, relief sneaking into his tone. He didn’t have much patience for bickering, even when he was a participant. He was probably just grateful to move on and get to their destination. They all walked to the Academy together since they had first started. It was a lovely send-off to their tradition to do it again one last time. 

They fell into stride all at once in their usual formation. Sayuri tended to walk in the middle with Masashi on her left and Hisoka on her right.

"When my older brother graduated from the Academy, he was put on a three-man squad with two other students from his graduating class. They assigned his team an instructor to help them be better ninjas. I wonder if they still do that. Maybe Iruka-sensei will put us all on a squad together." Hisoka had a finger pressed against his chin inquisitively as he pondered aloud. He always said doing so helped him think, but Sayuri was pretty sure he just did it to look wise. 

Masashi shrugged, his hands comfortably settled in his pants' pockets. "I suppose we wouldn't make a bad team. Sayuri is fast and relies mainly on ninjutsu. Your stamina and strength are obscene even though they make you slow, Hisoka. And that leaves me being the most well-rounded of us all with a slight advantage in genjutsu,” he said. Now that he was listing off their attributes so openly, it did make a lot of sense for them to be on a team together. Their skill sets seemed complimentary, and with how well they knew each other from years of close friendship, their level of communication and shared instincts would be unmatched. 

This realization sent a spark of excitement through Sayuri, powerful enough to smite her anxiety. Of course, Iruka-sensei would put them all on the same squad! There were no two graduates better for her to train with than them. 

With renewed energy, Sayuri reached her hands out to lock onto Hisoka and Masashi's wrists. Her pace suddenly doubled without warning, and the boys on either side of her began scrambling to follow her. 

"Come on!" Sayuri announced cheerfully, "Let's go to the Academy; I wanna find out if we're on the same team right now!" 

"S-Sayuri, hold on--" She was too excited to listen, let alone obey whichever one of her friends was pleading for her to slow down. She dragged her friends behind her, narrowly avoiding crashing into a masked, silver-haired jōnin heading in the opposite direction. She could see her future as a shinobi clearer than ever now with her friends beside her, and nothing was going to hold her back. 

* * *

  
  


Sasuke always arrived at the Ninja Academy before any other students did. His father, Fugaku, had a strictness about him that stuck with Sasuke long after his passing. Even with a lack of supervision, he consistently kept up a no-nonsense lifestyle. He trained every day, he maintained a healthy diet, and he kept his living space organized meticulously. 

Sasuke didn't even acknowledge the gentle hum of conversation billowing around him as his classmates slowly trickled in. At the moment, all he could think of was his possible impending squad placements. Some of his classmates had older siblings who graduated from the academy recently, and according to them, three-man squads were the next step. Once it came time for graduation, it was all his other classmates could talk about. And though he secretly hoped otherwise, if there were no issues with the team system, there’d be no reason to get rid of it for this graduating class. 

_But the teachers should know I have no need for a team._ Sasuke refused to believe that having to split his focus between his goals and two other dimwitted, unskilled ninja wannabes he would inevitably get stuck with would in any way improve his already outstanding skills. In fact, he dreaded the idea of having to rely on anyone else, and that feeling drowned out any hope he had of possibly being matched with a classmate he felt could keep up with him. Truth be told, he could really only count the students he wouldn't despise being paired with in some capacity on the one hand. He finally shifted his intense gaze from the front of the room to the students all around him. He kept perfectly still as he analyzed his possible teammates.

His first choice was Shino Aburame. Sasuke knew Shino was skilled and even better: unassuming. Shino's presence was never imposed on anyone. He stayed out of the center of attention, and he never gave any impression of weakness. He was practically perfect to be on a team with. Shino was smart, collected, and skilled. He was Sasuke's best bet at succeeding on a team. 

Sasuke eyed the room further, slowly ticking off more and more students who he deemed average or more likely to hold him back in his training. He felt a distinct sense of ire towards the girls who fawned over him. They would waste his time at best and become dead weight at worst. This sentiment applied, especially to Ino Yamanaka. 

_ What a waste of a kekkei genkai,  _ Sasuke thought to himself. He briefly considered being on a team with Sakura Haruno as well. She wasn't as overbearing as his other admirers. He knew she was a remarkable critical thinker and had the decency to be respectful towards him more consistently than the others. He probably wouldn't hate being in the same squad as her if she tried her best, but she definitely was not an ideal candidate. What Sakura rightfully boasted in brains, she severely lacked in brawn. 

But perhaps the absolute last person Sasuke wanted to be on a team with was only two seats away from him. Naruto Uzumaki, the biggest clown in class clowns’ history, seemed to only know how to take himself seriously, and nothing else besides that. He made crass jokes, poor choices, ugly faces, and shameful jutsus. Sasuke had no doubts that being on a team with someone like him would not only slow him down but make his blood boil. 

“Good morning, Sasuke-kun,” Sakura’s voice cut through Sasuke’s internal monologue. Her face was painted with a blush, almost as pink as her hair. “Is this seat taken?”

Sasuke didn't even get the chance to speak before Ino had derailed Sakura's attempt to sit near him. She snatched Saura's forearm in a claw-like grasp and tugged her away from Sasuke. Sakura snapped something back at Ino that Sasuke couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. Their bickering roused the interest of the rest of their class, and as a result, caused his other admirers to insert themselves needlessly in this petty squabble.  _ They seriously can't find something better to do with their time? This is just agonizingly stupid.  _

In the corner of the classroom furthest from him, a head of thick, light-brown hair popped up to peer at the commotion going on. Sasuke met the eyes of Sayuri Fukuhara, one of the  **very** few people he found to be the least offensive in this God-forsaken classroom. 

He held her gaze, musing to himself that she may interpret this action as a cry for help. Interestingly enough, she didn't get flustered or look away as other girls did when he would catch them looking at him during class from time to time. If she felt any particular way about him outside of his staring, it was not revealed in her gaze or in any of her body language. Could he truly be blessed with someone in class finally feeling just **neutral** towards him? What a relief that would be! He had almost tuned out the ruckus around him this way, just having an unprovoked staring contest with one of the top five students of his class and letting his thoughts of her wander. 

Without any warning, Naruto leaped up onto the table in front of him. He’d crouched down in such a way that Sasuke was forced to meet his eye. The blonde-haired brat glowered at Sasuke, and the latter was more than willing to return the same glare. The tension between them only seemed to grow, creating palpable friction comparable to electricity. 

An uproar slowly began to build as the girls who were previously vying for an opportunity to sit next to Sasuke had now turned their attention to Naruto and his gall to get up in their darling's face. They snapped at Naruto and encouraged Sasuke to punish him for daring to disrespect him in such a way.

And then, without warning, Naruto's face crashed into Sasuke's. White-hot rage flared up in Sasuke's chest as he felt Naruto's teeth clack against his painfully in what was likely the worst accidental first-kiss in history. They ripped apart almost as soon as they processed that they were kissing and turned away from each other as fast as conceivably possible. Sasuke spat out a garbled threat towards Naruto the second the idea formed in his head. He barely even registered what he was saying; he was so humiliated and furious. 

After a few seconds of debating whether or not Sasuke should self-induce vomiting, he wiped away at his mouth with his arm rapidly.  _ Awful, awful, awful,  _ He thought to himself vehemently.  _ I'm gonna kill him.  _ His resolve was rock-solid. One good kick would probably set Naruto in his place. He turned to face the object of his loathing only to find him missing from the spot he was crouched at before. Naruto was no longer perched on the table in front of him.

"Agh—ow! Sakura-chan, c-calm down!" Naruto's voice pierced through the classroom as the sound of fists colliding with flesh shortly followed. It seemed Sasuke's unofficial fan club had taken up the reins in doling out punishment for kissing him (regardless of whether or not it was intentional). He couldn't see Naruto through the crowd of girls swarming him, but he could most certainly hear him.  _ Huh, _ he thought,  _ I guess they're useful for something.  _

* * *

Sayuri winced as the violence towards Naruto finally met its end. Sasuke’s admirers seemed satisfied with the punishment they had inflicted on Naruto and settled in their respective seats. Hisoka shook his head, sighing in disbelief at what he had just witnessed. 

"Girls are crazy," he said. Sayuri bristled at his comment.

"No, they're not, Hisoka. It's easy to get reckless and not realize how your behavior looks when you have a crush on someone. Love makes people — even guys — crazy,” she said. And though she firmly believed what she said, there was a not-so-small part of Sayuri that felt anxious at the idea of one of the lovesick girls she was defending taking note of her and Sasuke’s impromptu staring contest. It most likely meant nothing to both parties involved, but to the outsiders zoning in on any little move Sasuke made, it could mean a threat to their chances with him. As that thought crossed her mind, Hisoka seemed to finish gathering his own thoughts to argue, 

“Okay, but Naruto obviously has a crush on Sak —”

Masashi cut in before Hisoka could finish his rebuttal. 

“Hisoka, you should probably quit while you’re ahead. This isn’t an argument you’re gonna win any time soon.” Sayuri wanted to grin at Masashi taking her side, but her main priority was making sure Hisoka did not finish that sentence. Certainly not with Hinata Hyuuga —  her best friend who was hopelessly in love with Naruto — in earshot. Sayuri jammed an elbow into Hisoka’s ribs and shot a glance at Hinata that snapped back around warningly at Hisoka like a boomerang. 

Hisoka’s nostrils flared in irritation. Of course, he refused his friend’s advice. And with his lackluster ability to pick up any social cues, as usual, Hisoka opened his mouth to retort. Much to his luck, their teacher loudly cleared his throat and effectively ended all conversation at that moment.

“As of today, you are all ninjas. You should congratulate yourselves on all your hard work and efforts to get here. However, don’t think things get any easier from here. You have a long road ahead of you. To help guide you through these challenges, you will be grouped into three-man squads with a jōnin to supervise you and your teams’ development.” Iruka’s speech caused the class to erupt in excited whispers. “Keep in mind that these teams have been specially selected to both complement and round out each teams’ set of skills. I will now begin listing off each team.”

Sayuri sat bolt upright in her chair, eagerly listening. She leaned forward to the row of seats in front of her and nudged Hinata. The shy girl looked around back at her, a nervous smile spreading on her face.

“I-I hope we’re on the same team, Sayuri-chan. A-and having Naruto-kun with us t-too would be really g-good.” Sayuri grinned at Hinata’s response, taking note of the slight flush in her face. She was probably thrilled at the idea of being on the same team as both her close friend and crush, respectively.

“Team Seven: Naruto Uzumaki —” Hinata’s head swiveled forward in a heartbeat to face Iruka right as he said Naruto’s name. “ — Sasuke Uchiha, and Sayuri Fukuhara.” 

Sayuri’s smile dropped from her face like it was a weight far too heavy for her to carry. Her jaw fell open in disbelief. Naruto and Sasuke? She had spoken to them roughly a handful of times in their years at the Academy together. How did Iruka expect her to believe that those two would compliment her skill set more effectively than Masahi and Hisoka would? 

She turned to look towards her friends seated to her right, her expression crestfallen. They seemed equally disappointed but rushed to try and make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal. Masashi forced a reassuring smile, and Hisoka leaned back to fold his arms behind his head. He was likely about to make a comment as Iruka listed off the next team.

“Team Eight: Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame.” Damn, Hinata wasn’t even on the same team as Sayuri’s friends? This just kept getting worse. She supposed Shino was at least some consolation. He was a stronger shinobi than Sayuri and would most certainly keep Hinata safe. 

“Team Nine: Masashi Tabe, Sakura Haruno, and Hisoka Ito,” Iruka read aloud.  _ What?  _ Sayuri thought as another wave of disbelief hit her head-on.  _ He kept Masashi and Hisoka together without me? What is he thinking?!  _ She had never felt so inclined to tear her braids apart in frustration, but she was damn close. She couldn’t even muster the focus to continue listening to the rest of the teams. 

“Well, looks like we got the brainiac of the class, Hisoka,” Masashi said, “Sorry things didn’t work out how we were hoping, Sayuri. But we’ll probably be put on missions together later on down the line.” His attempts at comforting her were appreciated, but Sayuri could not must the energy to thank him for it. She felt like her whole world just got turned upside down. Though, she supposed that was her own fault for so strongly believing she and her friends would all be on the same team together.

“Look on the bright side!” Hisoka now chimed in, “You and Sasuke are on the same team; who can beat a team with the Number One and Number Four rookie? Naruto is gonna have to really work to keep up with you guys, but you’ll be unstoppable!”

Sayuri swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded, her friends’ comfort helping her find the courage to put on a more optimistic demeanor. She came to a slightly uncomfortable smile and said,

“You guys are right. And don’t worry, Hinata. I’ll put the good word in for you with Naruto,” Sayuri said slyly. Hinata’s face turned bright red at her friend’s comment, and she buried her face in her hands.

“Y-you don’t have to d-do anything like **th-that**! I-I’ll be embarrassed!” she cried out. Sayuri began laughing at Hinata’s flustered response only to be cut off by Naruto jumping up from his seat and directing an indignant outburst towards Iruka.

“Iruka-sensei, what the hell is this crap? Why am I stuck on a team with a loser like Sasuke? My awesome skills are going to waste here!” He complained. Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose, his annoyance almost tangible.

“ **Because** , Naruto,” he began pointedly, “these teams are meant to be balanced. You have the worst scores in this class, and Sasuke **and** Sayuri have some of the best.” Sayuri shrunk as low in her seat as possible as Iruka reprimanded Naruto. Her face turned beet red as laughter boomed throughout the classroom. He couldn’t just take his disappointment and accept it like she was doing? He was making such a fuss, and even worse, he wasn’t even embarrassed about it! At this rate, Naruto wouldn’t know shame even if it punched him in the face. 

“Don’t worry, knucklehead,” Sasuke cut in now, and his tone was like ice, “Fukuhara and I can carry your dead weight just fine.”

“What did you just say to me, you prick?!” Naruto demanded. 

The whole class seemed to be entertained in some capacity by Naruto and Sasuke’s squabble. Sayuri wanted to melt into the floor and disappear the more they went back and forth. Hisoka had a smug grin wide on his face as he nudged Sayuri playfully,

“Looks like you have your work cut out for you, huh?” It was very much in character for Hisoka to get his fill of schadenfreude from any applicable occasions, and he probably felt like he was hitting the lottery right now. This was an absolute trainwreck for Sayuri, and it was a captivating one, to say the least.

“You can say that again,” Sayuri said. She already felt exhausted just by witnessing their dispute, and she didn’t feel optimistic about them getting along in the foreseeable future. Her patience was going to be put to the test in ways she never could have anticipated. 

“At least your negotiation skills will be outmatched by the end of this. You’ll be able to defuse any situation with no sweat once you spend enough time with those two.” Masashi continued to throw in some optimism in the hopes of drowning out Hisoka’s glee at her misfortune. Sayuri sighed and laid her forehead against her open palm. “You may have fun, you know. They can’t be this bad all the time.”

Sayuri’s head turned to meet Masashi’s eyes. She shrugged and commented,

“Or they are this bad all the time. Maybe I’ll kill them both and then get a new squad.” Masashi snorted at her comment, fighting to hold back open and raucous laughter. His shoulders jumped with the motion as he brought his hand to his mouth. He smirked and then said,

“Well, then I guess we’ll see what happens first, huh?” 

“Guess so,” Sayuri answered. “You’ll help me hide their bodies, right?” Masashi took this opportunity to lay his elbow against Hisoka’s shoulders and draw his attention back into their conversation. Hisoka’s head perked up, and he glanced from Masashi to Sayuri and smiled his usual grin at her as Masashi spoke.

“What else are friends for? You point, we dig.” It was comforting to know that Sayuri could still count on Hisoka and Masashi regardless of squad assignments. Naruto and Sasuke would be quicker to have their knives at one another’s throat before they had her back from how things looked right now. 

_ Good grief,  _ she thought to herself,  _ you’re in for it now, Sayuri.  _


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. Sincerest apologies for the delay in posting the next chapter. Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays! Thank you so much for all of the comments, kudos, and subscriptions. It means a lot and helps keep me motivated to keep writing. :)

Gorou Fukuhara's kitchen frequently required cleaning. He wasn't very good at the whole "clean as you go" cooking style. He often forgot to clean out the rice cooker from the night before, and as such, he had to scramble to get breakfast ready some mornings. It was hectic, but it was Gorou's favorite part of his home. He loved his colorful pots that hung from their rack on the ceiling, he loved his erratic array of houseplants (all of a different variety), and he loved how the room always smelled of sesame oil and sugar.

He hummed a song to himself as he shook his matcha powder through a sieve into a wide teacup. When he wasn't off on a mission, he liked to follow a pleasant ritual of having tea in the morning. Usually, Sayuri joined him, but she had woken up later than usual this morning and had to rush through breakfast to make it to the Academy on time. So as of right now, his company for tea time was the family cat Shiso, the early summer breeze coming in through the open kitchen window, and himself. 

"Should I treat myself and get some dango after this? It is my day off, after all. What do you think, Shiso?" he asked the large black cat as she weaved in between his legs. He chuckled as Shiso pawed at the hem of his yukata. 

Gorou cherished the small moments he could steal for himself. The grueling missions he and many other jonin had to endure took their toll sooner or later. Just the sound of a wind chime ringing felt like a gift in and of itself. 

He crouched down to pet Shiso as he waited for the water simmering in his floral tea kettle to reach a boil. His sweet little kitty's ears suddenly perked up, and she peered at the front door. A knock followed almost immediately after Shiso got to her feet. Gorou rose from his previously crouched position and strode towards the front door. His head cocked to the side curiously, not unlike Shiso would do. He twisted the doorknob in his large, scarred hand and pulled the door open.

On his doorstep stood the last two people he had expected to see today: The Third Hokage and Kakashi Hatake. The Third Hokage had his tobacco pipe balanced between his pursed lips. Kakashi's eyes crinkled in a way that led Gorou to assume he was smiling. It wasn't always apparent with the mask covering the lower half of his face.

"Hokage-sama and Kakashi-kun! What a pleasant surprise. What brings you to my door this morning?" 

Shiso poked her head around Gorou's leg and approached the two guests at the front of her domain. She sniffed at The Third Hokage first and seemed to prefer his company over Kakashi's. The Third Hokage chuckled at the outgoing cat as she rubbed up against his robes. He carefully and slowly eased himself into a squat to gather the cat up in his arms and rose to an upright position once more. Gorou sympathized with his caution at kneeling to the ground. Even at the ripe age of thirty-six, Gorou had to mind his overworked joints at times. He could only imagine the strain over the years that The Third Hokage, a man twice his age, had incurred. 

"Good morning, Gorou-senpai," Kakashi said warmly. "Do you mind if Hokage-sama and I come in and chat with you?" 

"That would be lovely," Gorou replied. He took a step back to pull his front door fully open and allow both men inside. Kakashi thanked him with a bow of his head as he stepped into the entryway and began to remove his shoes. "I've just set the kettle on to boil. Would either of you like some tea?"

"Yes, please." The Third Hokage finally chimed in. He gently set the cat down to roam freely as the two men began to settle in. Kakashi placed his sandals on the floor. A sweet, cloying smell washed over him. A thin, wispy trail of smoke seemed to be the source of the scent. Kakashi's gaze followed the line of smoke to its head, the Fukuhara family's shrine. 

A floating shelf close to the Fukuhara family home's entryway held a small, wooden torii and a picture of a beautiful young woman. She had lovely, deep green eyes that were framed with long eyelashes. Her face was heart-shaped, and her ash-blonde hair just touched her collarbone. Kakashi imagined that if sunshine could be personified, it would look a lot like her.

Next to the sunshine woman's picture was a silver hair barrette adorned with a crystalline dragonfly and a tiny, seemingly well-cared-for jade plant. Kakashi took a moment to press his palms together and bow his head towards the shrine. The Third Hokage took note of Kakashi's attention to the shrine and followed suit in paying respects.

Gorou smiled at their heartfelt gesture. He struggled to find the words to thank them for their kindness, and even when he did find them, his throat became dry and uncomfortable. He felt tears prick at his eyes, threatening to spill over. Even after seven years, coping with her absence had yet to become more manageable. His chest swelled with a raw combination of grief and appreciation. Gorou knew if he dared put his feelings into words, he would only weep. And the last thing he wanted to do was cry on his day off. Not when he had such good company to boot. 

Instead of thanking them, he opted to clear his throat and set himself to fixing up his guests some tea, and having his back facing them made focusing on something else a lot easier.

"Please make yourselves comfortable. I'm sure you have much to tell me," Gorou said. He hoped his tone was pleasant and inviting, but he knew he wasn't good at masking his feelings. They could probably sense the emotion that weighed heavily in his chest. But right now, he just wanted to have some tea with his respected guests.

* * *

Sayuri elected to pick up a meal at the tea avenue a few streets away from the Academy. Her class took a break for lunch, and most of her fellow graduates chose to have lunch with their new squads. Sayuri moved to do the same, but when she saw Naruto and Sasuke dart off as far away from one another as possible (and all the while making no effort to meet up with her), she decided to eat solo. She bought herself a lunch set from the gyūdon shop. 

She strolled back to the Academy, a plastic bag carrying her lunch in hand. Though she didn't expect Naruto or Sasuke to return from wherever they respectively ran off to, she supposed that she might as well be in the area of the Academy in case they decided to come back. Or, even better, if she ran into Masashi and Hisoka. 

Sayuri sighed as she dropped a tad overdramatically into a seat on one of the many stone benches lining the path near the Academy. She was still making peace with her disappointment in her squad placements, but she made minimal progress by focusing on the positives. Naruto had scored low from what Iruka-sensei said, but his stamina is outstanding. He doesn't give up on anything, and that will be a big help for me. She continued mulling through her more optimistic thoughts as she snapped apart her chopsticks and began to eat.

Sasuke is the Number One Rookie. I'm glad to be on a team with someone skilled. But he seems kind of cold. Then again, it's not like I know him very well. Maybe he'll open up a bit more after we get to know each other. Try to be positive, remember?

"Sayuri-chan?" 

Sayuri's heart nearly jumped out of her chest at the sound of someone's voice crashing through her internal monologue. She struggled to avoid choking on a cut of beef; she was so startled. Managing to swallow her mouthful of food, she looked towards the source of her alarm. 

Sakura Haruno had managed to sneak up on her. Her spring green eyes were as wide as saucers, and she scrambled to apologize. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to surprise you." 

Sayuri coughed a few times, her eyes stinging as her throat began to feel raw. She couldn't form a sentence right now, even if she wanted to. She uncapped the little canister of miso soup that came with her lunch set and used that to help settle her coughing.

"I-It's okay," Sayuri rasped and then cleared her throat before speaking again, "It was an accident. Did you need something?" 

Sakura shifted uncomfortably now that it was her turn to speak. She seemed to take a moment to gather herself, and with blush slowly spreading across her cheeks, she said,

"Well, I...I want to know your intentions for Sasuke."

Sayuri stared at Sakura blankly. It was as though her brain suddenly shut down from trying so hard to make sense of such an out of nowhere request. Her "intentions" for Sasuke…? What did that even mean? She left Sakura hanging for a moment, her thoughts running all at once as she still tried to comprehend what Sakura was getting at.

"I...I don't have any intentions, I guess. I mean, other than being a good teammate, if that counts for anything." Sayuri spoke more like she was asking a question as opposed to answering one. She didn't know what she was supposed to say here.

Sakura's gaze transitioned from having hints of her standard curiosity to gleams of suspicion. Her brows knitted together briefly and then divided as she sighed in exasperation. 

"Every girl in our class likes Sasuke and would leap at the chance to be on a squad with him, so it's only natural for me to be cautious. Ultimately, if you're planning anything, you might as well get it out of the way now. It'll be easier for me to know not to trust you and view you as a fellow rival."

Sayuri felt a bit provoked by Sakura's tone. The latter made it sound as if what she was saying was the most obvious thing in the world. Was it so hard for Sakura to consider that not every person in their class's life always revolved around Sasuke? Sayuri genuinely felt indifferent towards Sasuke. They weren't friends, they seemed to have mutual respect, but they rarely talked to each other. How could anyone in their right mind assume that Sayuri had "intentions" just based on their rare interactions?

"Sakura, I'm not interested in Sasuke. And I know for a fact Hinata isn't either, so it's not  **every** girl in class. This sounds like a conversation you might be better off bringing to someone who  **does** like Sasuke." Sayuri said. She hoped that Sakura would hear her out. The last thing she wanted to do was lose her patience when her day thus far had already disappointed her, and Sakura's attitude was only making her resolve to stay calm that much weaker. 

Luckily, her statement seemed to satisfy Sakura enough to halt her inquisition into Sayuri's dynamic with Sasuke. She folded her arms across her chest, though she still seemed compelled to scrutinize Sayuri in a less obvious way.

"Okay, if you say so," Sakura conceded. And with that, Sayuri immediately began gathering the remains of her lunch to discard. She certainly wasn't hungry anymore. If Sakura planned to waste her time like this instead of getting to know Masashi and Hisoka, Sayuri would happily take her place in their company. 

"If you'll excuse me." Sayuri stood abruptly and maneuvered around Sakura. The petty side of her was more tempted to shove her shoulder against Sakura's as she passed than she was willing to admit. 

"You don't have to leave on my account." A new voice chimed in.  _ Huh. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear, _ Sayuri thought to herself as Sasuke announced his presence. He was leaning oh-so-casually against a tree. He probably watched that whole debacle, and he looked a bit too pleased with himself for Sayuri's liking. He was likely a little egotistical from being the Number One Rookie, sure. But it felt like a whole new level of arrogance to watch Sakura mark her territory by making demands towards Sayuri and enjoy it the entire time. Something didn't feel right about this, but whatever it was, it wasn't Sayuri's business.

"I'm not interested in having the same conversation again, so please carry on in my absence," Sayuri said, her displeasure evident. She didn't even need to look to know Sakura was glaring at her; she could feel the burn of her eyes on her back.  _ Whatever. I'm not going to waste my time here any longer. _ She tossed the little leftovers of her lunch in the garbage and briskly walked down the path further away from the Academy. Hisoka and Masashi were going to hear all about this, that was without a doubt.

Sayuri continued up the stone path for roughly five more minutes, her frustration slowly melting away the further she got from her pink-haired interrogator. Instead, her vexation was replaced with confusion as to where her friends could've possibly chosen to eat lunch. They rarely ate far from the Academy up until now. She looked around the grassy, lightly forested areas surrounding the path in the hopes of spotting them, but it was to no avail. As Sayuri gave up searching further and looked to the road in front of her, she stopped utterly in her tracks.

Sasuke was somehow walking in the opposite direction of her. He was roughly a few meters ahead of her but on the same walkway as her. Sayuri looked behind her briefly and then looked back at Sasuke. He was still there, just getting closer now. She was half-convinced he would disappear once she turned back around. Okay, she thought to herself, so I'm not hallucinating. He's there. But he was just with Sakura. How did he get ahead of me if he didn't pass me? Did he circle around to intercept me for some reason? 

"How did you get here so fast?" Sayuri asked as soon as Sasuke was within earshot. Now it was Sasuke's turn to look confused. He raised his eyebrow at her as he approached,

"What are you talking about? Where's Naruto?" he inquired. 

"I don't know; I haven't seen him since Iruka-sensei dismissed us for lunch. But weren't you by the Academy talking to Sakura just now?" Sayuri gestured behind her as she questioned his whereabouts. Once Sasuke had reached her side, she fell into step with him to walk in the direction she just came from.

"No. That wasn't me, but I can guess who it was," Sasuke's tongue clicked impatiently, "What is that loser trying to pull by transforming into me? I let my guard down for one second, and he jumped me. Unbelievable." Sayuri watched as his fists clenched at his sides. His shoulders were tensely locked in place, and his stride was forceful. The annoyance was radiating off of him, and he was walking so briskly that Sayuri had to quicken her pace quite a bit just to keep up with him. He seemed to be on a bit of a warpath right now, although his face barely revealed any emotion.

"Wait, what happened with you and Naruto?" And par for the course, Naruto was already causing problems. It hadn't even been a couple of hours since their teams were announced! Sayuri knew he would cause an uproar sooner rather than later, but she honestly thought he might at least wait a day. She should've known better than to have any expectations of Naruto. 

"That moron snuck up on me, and I made the mistake of underestimating him. He tied me down and then bailed without saying anything. I got free a few minutes ago. And since you saw "me" talking to Sakura, now I know why. Maybe he'll do me a favor for once and make her leave me alone."

Sayuri couldn't hold back a snicker at Sasuke's comment, especially considering the spiel she just heard from the very person he wanted to avoid. She debated telling him about it, but it seemed like he didn't need Sayuri's assistance in reaching his limit with Sakura's behavior. Besides, getting involved in someone else's quest for love wouldn't do any good.  _ Not my business _ . Sayuri mentally reminded herself. "You don't have anything else to do?" Sasuke's voice cut through her thought process.

"Huh?"

"You were walking in the opposite direction of me when we crossed paths, but you turned around to follow me. Were you wandering around cluelessly to waste time, or did you have a destination to get to?" 

"Oh, um," Sayuri stuttered. His intensity was unnerving. Sasuke was a few inches taller than her, so he was able to peer down at her with his cold, harsh gaze. His tone and stare in combination succeeded in making Sayuri feel small and foolish. She quickly broke eye contact with Sasuke and instead concentrated on looking straight in front of her. "I was looking for Hisoka and Masashi. I won't get to see them as much as I would like since we didn't get placed on the same team, so I wanted to wish them luck. But I didn't find them, and then I ran into you, so...I guess I'll help you look for Naruto if you don't mind."

"Do whatever you want," Sasuke said nonchalantly. Silence fell between them once Sasuke had granted her permission to be around him. Sayuri assumed that he figured it would be pointless to tell her to buzz off now. They were going to be in each other's company a lot, regardless of how they each felt about it. The quietness currently sitting comfortably between them was...almost enjoyable. So, she supposed that meant he couldn't be totally sick of her already. He'd probably be trying to outrun her by now if he was, right?

"Were you hoping to be on the same team as them? Tabe and Ito, I mean." Sasuke's question shocked her. Sayuri wasn't expecting him to ask her about her thoughts or feelings on...well,  **anything** . If he was just making small talk, she was surprised that he even had an interest in doing so. He always struck Sayuri as the "need-to-know" type. Knowing whether or not she was hoping to be on the same team as her best friends seemed like something he would likely deem frivolous information in her opinion. 

"Well, kinda, yeah. Just because we're all so familiar with each other, you know? It's not a huge letdown or anything, though. Sensei thought we would work well together, so I trust his judgment. Was there anyone you were hoping to have on your team, Uchiha-kun?"

Sasuke visibly cringed and made a displeased face at Sayuri, referring to him by his last name and using an honorific. 

"Don't do any of that formality crap. Just call me by my name, and I'll call you by yours," he said sharply. Sasuke didn't answer her initial question for a moment. Sayuri reasoned he may have been thrown off guard by how she had addressed him to the point where he forgot she'd even asked him a question. "Shino," he told her. 

"Just you and Shino?" Sayuri asked. She was surprised he didn't have another name ready.

"No, obviously not. There's three in a squad, remember? I would've preferred Shino, you, and me. You're both within my skill range, and I wanted teammates that won't hold me back if I  **had** to have them."

Sayuri didn't even have time to process how she felt about Sasuke wanting her on his team. Their path finally met Sakura once again, sitting at the bench Sayuri had abandoned roughly ten minutes ago. She hadn't noticed them at first. She appeared to be focused on wiping dust off of her dress. Sayuri paused in her step, debating whether or not being seen with Sasuke would be worth the animosity that would inevitably come her way. God, why did this have to be so stressful? It's not like she chose to be on Sasuke's team! Was everyone just conveniently forgetting that?

Sasuke walked forward, either entirely oblivious to Sayuri battling with her fight-or-flight instinct or despite it. She really didn't want to deal with Sakura again, especially so soon after their confrontation. Sayuri considered maybe hanging back a few feet behind Sasuke in the hopes that if Sakura saw him first, she would be unaware of anyone else around them. 

"Sasuke-kun, there you are! For such a bad boy, you're awful shy, y'know? But you're like, mentally prepared now, right? Because I'm ready to go!" Sakura chattered away animatedly. Sasuke seemed to be paying no attention to her whatsoever, and Sayuri couldn't make sense of a word she was saying. She could only muster a slight shake of her head and a slightly-too-obvious eye roll at the other girl's chirping. "Wait, Sasuke-kun! Where are you going?"

"We're looking for Naruto." At this point in the two other genins' conversation, which seemed more like one person just talking at the other, Sayuri had managed to match Sasuke in stride and perhaps even convincingly concealed herself behind him. However, her blood turned to ice when he dared to speak the word “we”. It felt almost scandalous when brazenly uttered in front of Sakura.  _ Just when I thought she wouldn't notice me…Jig is up, I guess _ .

Sasuke rotated in his stance, effectively revealing the previously hidden Sayuri to Sakura. Sayuri sheepishly lifted a hand to wave at Sakura and forced a painfully awkward smile. Sakura's only response was to offer her a sharp stare dripping in killing intent. A shiver ran down Sayuri's spine, dread sitting heavily in her stomach. 

"I didn't realize you two were together," Sakura said pointedly, "Anyway, I haven't seen that dimwit anywhere. I don't know why you bother with a troublemaker like him. I mean, it's obvious why he is the way he is, isn't it? He doesn't have any parents. My parents would yell at me if I did half the annoying crap he does. But if you don't have parents, you won't learn. Who knows if he ever will? He's such a selfish brat—no wonder he's all alone."

Sayuri's blood transitioned from icy apprehension to boiling fury faster than she realized. Her heart thundered wildly, and her mind flooded with so many cruel and venomous things to scream at Sakura all at once. She felt as though she were numb but on fire at the same time. Was she going to explode? She certainly felt like she could. It was like she was a ticking bomb caught in a whirlwind. 

_ Stay calm _ , she told herself adamantly. Sayuri's hands curled tightly into fists, her fingernails digging deeply into her palms.  _ Stay calm. Stay calm. Just stay calm. You can't lose control. Don't snap.  _ Old images she tried desperately to bury away flashed in her mind and disappeared as quickly as they came. The Hidden Mist Village, the bullies at their Academy shoving her into the ocean, water flying in the air, the boys' horrified faces... _ No, not this. Not this again. _

"You haven't the slightest idea of what you're talking about," Sasuke said. His voice sounded garbled and distant. Sayuri felt herself slipping away. It felt as if she were trying desperately to stay awake despite being exhausted.  _ Stay calm,  _ she begged herself,  _ please, just keep it together.  _

* * *

"The feeling of being alone and isolated is nothing compared to your parents yelling at you. And you just standing there blabbering on about something you don't know anything about is somehow more annoying than you already are ."

Sasuke had no intentions of pulling his punches with Sakura right now. He gave her a final dirty look as he spat his scathing rebuttal at her. The look of devastation on her face was well-deserved, in his opinion. "Let's go, Sayuri." 

His teammate said nothing in response, but he heard her footsteps falling not too far behind him as he stalked towards the Academy. She has some nerve talking like that. He was absolutely incensed that someone who held the title of "Smartest of the Class" could be so proudly ignorant. 

"There's nowhere else for Naruto to hide at this point, so he has to be at the Academy. We probably won't be looking for much longer. It won't be hard to pick out his ugly orange jumpsuit."

Sayuri didn't say anything in response to his observation. Sasuke peered over his shoulder to see her walking woodenly behind him. It was as though she were on auto-pilot. He kept up his pace as if he didn't notice for a few moments, all the while conspicuously watching her through his peripherals.

Once it seemed like she couldn't shake off whatever mood had overtaken her, he decided to try something. Sasuke turned around fully to face her and stood directly in her path to see if she would notice him doing so. When she walked straight into him, it became clear that she would not. 

"Ouch! What the hell is up with you?" Sasuke asked. Again, no response. She managed to back away from him once she realized that she'd collided with him. He saw her lips move, but if she had said anything, it was inaudible to him. Outside of those small moments of cognizance, it seemed like she was entirely out of it. 

Sasuke observed her closer and noticed her poor attempts to hide her trembling. Her usually attentive eyes were emptily trained on the ground. His gaze met her hands as she shakily raised them to wipe away tears that were threatening to spill over any second. He released a choked gasp at the sight of her unwittingly smearing blood along her cheeks in the process. 

The noise Sasuke made drew Sayuri's attention well enough to lift her mile-long stare from the ground to meet his eyes and then finally shift to her hands. She released a startled squeak of her own at the crescent-shaped puncture wounds in both her palms. Her blood was smudged all the way up to the tips of her fingers.

"O-Oh no," Sayuri whispered to herself. "I-I was just trying to stay calm…"

Sasuke felt a pang of empathy for her that would cause most who knew him to raise an eyebrow. Though he was often collected and guarded on the outside, he had a good idea of what she was experiencing right now. He could feel the familiar waves of panic rolling off of her. He'd had episodes like this before, but he never knew what to call them or how to describe them to anyone else. He just knew that they felt awful in every sense of the word. 

"Well, we're heading to the Academy anyhow. There's likely a medical ninja in the infirmary that can take care of that for you," Sasuke said. "Let's go before you bleed all over the place." 

* * *

"Man, if this guy doesn't show up soon, I'm seriously gonna lose it!" Naruto complained. He had taken up a post at the classroom entrance he and his other squadmates awaited their sensei in. He peered out into the hallway, grumbling to himself about the jonin's tardiness. "How come we get saddled with this slow-poke? He's so late; everyone else is already gone!"

Sasuke sat in the front row of long desks neatly lined up along the classroom. If he felt any sort of way towards the delay in their training, he didn't show it in his face or mannerisms. He only sat and watched Naruto repeat the cycle of checking the hallway, whining, pacing, and then starting all over again. 

Sayuri sat on the table to Sasuke's right, her legs hanging leisurely above the floor. Her palms had been tended to by a frantic-looking medical ninja. Though he healed her wound, she still had bandages encasing her palms. "It'll be better for you to have a barrier between your nails and your palms the next time you have a panic attack, so you should keep those on," he had told her. 

"He probably has something important to do. It won't hurt to give him the benefit of the doubt," Sayuri said, fiddling with her bandages.

"Benefit- **shmenefit** ! What's more important than meeting your students, huh? I'm gonna show this guy just who he's dealing with!" Naruto told her. He stomped over to the blackboard at the front of the class and secured an eraser saturated with chalk, and dragged a spare chair over to the entrance where he previously stationed himself. Using the chair to boost his height, he situated the eraser between the sliding door and its frame. 

Naruto hopped off the chair and then chucked it aside. He placed his hands on his hips, chuckling to himself and proudly admiring his prank set-up. "That'll teach him to be on time!" Sasuke's only acknowledgment of Naruto's plot was to shake his head, and Sayuri followed suit with a sigh. 

"I'm starting to think you're  **trying** to reach a new level of stupid," Sasuke said flatly. "Do you honestly think a high-level ninja will fall for that?" 

"And it's not a very nice thing to do even if he doesn't fall for it. Why do you want to start off on the wrong foot?" Sayuri asked. 

“I don’t know why you’re trying to play extra nice about our lame sensei. It’s only his just deserts for being late, as far as I’m concerned. Why should I have to worry about being on the right foot if he isn’t worried? ” Naruto shrugged. 

A scraping noise brought the team’s conversation to an end. The sliding door had been pulled open, and a head full of silver hair poked through the doorway. At the same time, the eraser that Naruto had set up dropped onto his head. Clouds of chalk dust billowed from the impact, and smaller particles clung to strands of his hair.

At first, everyone was too stunned to move. Once the moment passed, Naruto had the exact reaction that anyone who spent any amount of time with him would expect; he pointed and cackled at his sensei. Sasuke’s gaze dropped from the scene in front of him to the desk at which he was seated. His hands were in their usual folded position against his chin. From what could be seen of his expression, he remained perpetually unimpressed. 

Sayuri looked like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes darted frantically from one person to another as she scrambled to find the appropriate reaction for this moment. She sputtered out something along the lines of “I shouldn’t have let him do that, I’m sorry.”

Their sensei bent over and picked up the eraser that had bounced off of his head on impact. He inspected it briefly and then brought his unoccupied hand to cup his chin thoughtfully. 

“Well,” the jonin said, “with this in mind, how shall I summarize my first impression of you all? I think idiots suffice quite nicely, wouldn’t you say?” 

The three genin all cringed at his analysis of them but had nothing to really prove him wrong at the moment. Naruto had managed to ruin his whole team’s first impression in one fell swoop. “I didn’t expect a response from that. That aside, we’re moving to the rooftop park to chat a little in a less stuffy space. Follow along now.” 

Their sensei turned around without so much as his name and without checking behind him to see if his team was following him.  _ How does this keep getting worse and worse?  _ Sayuri asked herself.  _ The only highlight of today was my lunch, and even that got interrupted. What am I gonna do?  _


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thank you very much for sticking around for chapter three! I'm trying to keep my updates between four to six weeks so I can regularly post, but also try and balance being a somewhat responsible adult and work full-time. I think this chapter is the one I've been the most nervous about posting since it's very characterization-heavy, and I hope that the liberties I've taken sit well with everyone. A big thank you also must be given to my great friends Storm and Ronnie for reviewing my chapters, editing, giving me notes, etc. They're the best, and if you notice any edits in older chapters, that's why! I could not do this without them. I'll end my rambling now, and I hope you enjoy what I have for you. :)

Kakashi Hatake leaned against the railing of the rooftop park. His genin students sat a decent distance away from him. Sitting in order from left to right were Sayuri Fukuhara, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki. 

Naruto seemed to prefer squatting to sitting based on the position he was in currently. He was shooting glares at Sasuke that he didn't bother hiding. If Kakashi had to guess, Sasuke probably noticed the intermittent scowls but didn't want to give Naruto the satisfaction of offering one in return. For now, at least.

Kakashi’s attention switched to Sayuri, who had caught on to the spiteful aura brewing between her teammates. She plastered on a smile that, unfortunately for her, clearly displayed her discomfort at their animosity. She began chatting with Naruto so painfully awkwardly that Kakashi felt compelled to interrupt them. He cleared his throat to catch everyone’s attention and simultaneously rescue his new student from her cringe-worthy attempt at distracting Naruto from sending more scowls Sasuke’s way.

“Alright, let’s get this moving along, shall we? I’d like you to each take your turn introducing yourselves, so we all get to know each other,” Kakashi said. 

“Well, how much do you wanna know?” Naruto asked. 

“Just the basics. Your name, your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for your future; stuff like that.” 

“Maybe you should go first, Sensei,” Sayuri chimed in, “and we’ll just follow your example.”

“Me?” Kakashi raised his gloved hand to point at himself for clarity briefly before allowing it to fall to his side once more, “Okay, if you insist. My name is Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and dislike are...well, I don’t really think you guys knowing that is necessary right now. I can’t say I’ve put much thought into any specific goals or future aspirations. As for my hobbies, I think I have too many to count.” 

Sasuke seemed completely indifferent towards Kakashi’s obvious avoidance of revealing details about himself. Sayuri and Naruto looked towards each other, the former appearing confused and the latter vexed. 

“Did this guy seriously just tell us to introduce ourselves and then tell us diddly squat about himself?” Naruto said as he turned to face Sayuri. He held a hand up to cover the lower half of his face as he whispered. Not that Kakashi could read lips that well, but he supposed he appreciated the extra effort to hide his complaint.

“Yeah, I think so,” Sayuri replied.

“Alright. You there, on the right. Why don’t you go first?” 

Naruto jolted away from Sayuri to face Kakashi. He snapped to attention like a rubber band now that he was the conversation’s current topic. He fiddled with his forehead protector emblazoned with the Hidden Leaf Village symbol as he spoke with a proud, wide grin,

“Well, since you asked, my name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen; it’s my favorite meal. Especially Irchiraku’s ramen! My dislikes are vegetables and the time you have to wait for instant ramen to be ready. My hobbies are eating ramen of all brands and flavors and then comparing and ranking ‘em from worst to best. And my dream for the future is to become the most amazing Hokage the village has ever seen! Then everyone will respect me and treat me like I matter.”

_ I wonder how Minato-sensei would feel, seeing Naruto grow up speaking and feeling like this.  _ Kakashi thought to himself. He switched his gaze from Naruto to his other students to gauge their reaction. Sasuke held his standard, unconcerned ambiance. However, Sayuri’s expression softened into a worried frown at Naruto’s final thought in his introduction of himself.  _ Thankfully, it appears sympathy is not entirely lost on this team.  _

“Alright, next,” Kakashi said. He looked to Sasuke now expectantly.

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate plenty of things, and I don’t particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream because I **will** make it a reality. I’m going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone.”

The atmosphere amongst Team Seven completely shifted at that moment. Naruto stared at Sasuke, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. His skin seemed to blanch to a sickly pale color, and he scooted as far away from Sasuke as inconspicuously as he could. Sayuri’s face held some of the same softness from Naruto’s introduction, but it was different. It was more profound and maintained a sense of intimidating understanding. It reminded Kakashi of the face someone would have when they discover that their friend was just diagnosed with the same grueling illness they just got over.

_ That's about what I expected,  _ Kakashi said to himself.  _ I’m beginning to wonder if the Third Hokage purposely handed me a bunch of traumatized pre-teens as a sick joke. _ Sasuke’s introduction felt more like a mirror showing Kakashi an angle of himself he did  _ not  _ like than really getting to know his student as a person. He allowed a barely-noticeable sigh to escape him before saying, 

“Okay. Now, the last one, go ahead.”

All eyes were on Sayuri now. She adjusted her braids by sweeping them from behind her shoulders to rest on her chest. She took a deep breath as she did so and laid her hands on her thighs. These little gestures seemed to help her gather herself before she spoke.

“My name is Sayuri Fukuhara. I like tea, sweet fruits like peaches and plums, spending time with my friends, and learning new jutsus with my dad. I dislike competition, aggression, grudges, and mean-spirited people. My hobbies are reading in my free time and swimming. I practiced a lot when I was little, so I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I don’t really have a specific dream for the future, to be honest. But, if I have to pick something, I’d say becoming a strong enough kunoichi to make the village feel safe and protected by me is my ultimate goal.”

“Eh? You’re not trying to be the Hokage, too, are you? ‘Cuz that’s kinda how you’re making it sound,” Naruto cut in. He sent her a sideways glance. Sayuri shook her head back and forth and waved the suggestion off immediately.

“Oh, n-no, nothing like that! All the responsibility that comes with being the Hokage is way too much for me! It’s just that since the Third Hokage granted my Dad and me sanctuary here, I want to repay his kindness to us. If he hadn’t let us hide in the village, we never would’ve been able to build a life here. And I just...I can’t stand the idea of losing my home and my family again, so I have to be strong enough to protect it.”

A chill passed through Kakashi as his new student spoke. Every person on Team Seven had experienced some form of life-altering loss, and all three of them came out on the other side vastly different from each other. But Sayuri’s unwavering tenderness struck Kakashi directly in the gut. Gorou’s influence on her was clear as day.  _ This world is endlessly cruel, Sayuri. I hope you don’t lose your softness as you fight your way through it,  _ he prayed silently. 

Kakashi watched as Sasuke, who up until now seemed like he couldn’t even be paid to feign interest in whatever anyone here had to say, looked towards Sayuri. If Kakashi hadn't been looking for it, he might not have even noticed the slight change in the quiet boy’s disposition. His body language remained unaffected, but the curiosity in his dark eyes was evident. He observed her with a focused intensity until she glanced in his direction. He averted his eyes so quickly and subtly, Sayuri likely had no idea he’d been staring in the first place.  _ It seems they’ve made quite the impression on each other.  _

“Great. You’re all unique, and you have your own ideas. That aside, we’ll have our first mission tomorrow,” Kakashi said. Naruto perked up immediately upon hearing this.

“What kind of mission is it?” He asked. He leaned forward eagerly as his eyes lit up in excitement.

“It’s a mission the four of us will do together,” Kakashi answered vaguely on purpose. They weren’t going to be happy with any of the news he had to give them; that much was for sure. He had earned a reputation for being more no-nonsense when it came to his post-graduation test. And despite some of the skills this team had to boast, he didn’t have very high hopes that they’d successfully pass his test. 

“Come on, you can’t leave me in suspense like this, Sensei! What’s the mission? What’s the mission?” Naruto pressed.

“...It’s a survival exercise.”

“A  **survival exercise?!** _ ”  _ Naruto repeated back indignantly. “What gives? I thought this was gonna be a real mission!”

“I guess it makes sense that we might not be thrown into a mission immediately. We learned some survival skills at the Academy before, but only the basics. Sensei, is this some type of advanced training?” Sayuri asked. 

“That’s correct. It is **some** type of advanced survival training.”

“Jeez, can’t you just say exactly what we’re doing? I dunno why you gotta be so confusing for no reason!” Naruto was not handling this uncertainty very well. “I mean, seriously! We worked so hard for so long, and now you’re jerkin’ us around with this exercise crap!”

_ These kids are really something else, huh?  _ Kakashi mused. He broke into laughter at Naruto’s complaints.

“Well, I can tell you if you want, but you’re not going to like it. So if there are no objections, I’ll tell you.”

Upon hearing their sensei’s remark, the three genin exchanged quick glances. No one said they didn’t want to listen to what he had to say. 

“Alright, I’ll tell you. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Kakashi leaned forward and looked at his team intently. He felt the energy’s intensity around his team shift as he did so. “Of the thirty-six graduates who just came here, only twelve will actually be accepted as genin. The other twenty-four will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make-it-or-break-it, pass-or-fail test. Oh, and the chance that you three will fail is at least sixty-six percent.”

Naruto’s jaw nearly fell to the floor at this revelation. Sasuke seemed unfazed as he had for an overwhelming majority of the team’s conversation thus far. Sayuri looked like all of the energy had been drained out of her. Kakashi shrugged. “I told you guys that you wouldn’t like it.”

Sayuri laid her elbows on her knees and began rubbing circles against her temples. It was likely a vain attempt to soothe the stress visibly weighing her down. She sighed and then asked, “So, was the graduation just for show?”

“Not necessarily. It served to determine what students had the potential to become ninjas. But your prospects don’t guarantee anything. **I** decide if you pass or fail, as does every other jonin with their respective squads. So be at the designated training spot at 5:00 a.m., and bring your ninja gear.”

The air became clouded with potent unease. Naruto looked thoroughly unnerved, his eyes darting between Sayuri, Sasuke, and Kakashi. Based on his expression, Kakas was willing to bet the rambunctious blonde was internally praying that this was all an elaborate prank played on him despite his external panic. 

Sasuke appeared noticeably more determined than before. His gaze smoldered with formidable resolve and likely a bit of annoyance at this additional obstacle. His hands held their folded stance as they leaned against his nose before coming away to finally reveal his whole face. He squeezed his interlocked fingers so hard his hands began to tremble from his intensity. 

Sayuri’s head seemed to only be held up by her left hand at this point. She apparently had given up on trying to prevent a headache and was now nursing the one she’d unfortunately received. The only part of her that seemed to hold any life was her right leg. Her knee bounced with the speed of a piston, causing her foot to tap against the stone floor of the park. Sasuke only lasted about ten seconds of listening to her attempts at channeling her anxiety before recommending she relax with thinly-veiled aggravation.

Satisfied in how thoroughly he had stressed them out, Kakashi turned to leave. He paused after turning around and peered over his shoulder to give them one parting note.

“You’re dismissed for today. Oh, and don’t have any breakfast, or else you’ll throw up during the exercise.” This was the only fun part of Kakashi’s job, so he had to enjoy it a little bit before he inevitably sent this team packing back to the Academy. He was perhaps disappointed but definitely not surprised. After all, no one had ever passed his test.

* * *

“I’m gonna fail!” Sayuri exclaimed as she flung the door open to her and her father’s house. She had a headache, anxiety-induced sweat possibly leaving a stain on her top, and a desperate need for consolation. “I’m gonna fail, and I’m gonna get sent back to the Academy.” She slammed the door shut behind her and didn’t even stop her emotional rambling as she took off her shoes. “Neither Hisoka, Hinata, nor Masashi is on my team, either, so I’m going in completely blind for this final test. I don’t know how to handle this! Especially since Kakashi-sensei said that there’s a sixty-six percent fail rate! Oh, God, I can’t believe I’m gonna have to go through all of those tests and exams again. **Again!** I’m so bad at taking tests, I freak out every time.” 

Gorou entered the kitchen as soon as his daughter’s voice ricocheted through the house. He couldn’t hide the amused smile that played on his lips. 

“Oh, don’t let Kakashi get to you, Sayuri. He’s trying to psych you out. You’re not gonna fail, I know it,” he assured her. He took note of the bandages woven around her palms, and his smile melted into a concerned frown. “What happened to your hands?”

With a sigh, Sayuri answered, “I had a panic attack.” She could feel the alarm radiating off of her father the second she told him. Unfortunately for her, he was quite a skilled worrywart.

“You did?” Gorou reached out and cradled her hands in his for inspection, “I don’t remember you hurting yourself the last time you had an episode. Did Kakashi really unsettle you that much?” His frown deepened, and the hints of age lines in his forehead became more pronounced.

Sayuri shook her head. She pried her hands free from her dad’s hold, feeling too overwhelmed for his questioning at the moment. “No, it wasn’t because of him. It was this girl in our class who just—ugh! She just said something to Sasuke about Naruto, and it just made me so...so  **angry** _ ,  _ and that made me scared, and I...well, you know.” Sayuri gestured lamely as her words failed her. She needed to find some sort of outlet for her anxious energy, so she pressed on into the living room and began pacing. Shiso, the cat, became alarmed at her erratic movement and jumped onto the coffee table to observe her. 

“Sasuke and Naruto?” Gorou asked. He followed her into their common area in the adjacent room and found a seat on the couch. The calm and serene energy of the living room filled with mostly tan colors and pale blue furniture was a complete mismatch for the state of disarray Sayuri was in.

“Yeah, they're on my team. I was helping Sasuke look for Naruto, and that's when we ran into Sakura. She said that Naruto was the way he was because he didn’t have any parents. And then that made me think of Mom, and I just...I couldn’t believe she said something like that. A-And for her to not even know what it’s like to **lose** someone, I just...I couldn’t stand it!”

Gorou got to his feet and crossed the room to his daughter. He planted his hands delicately on her shoulders to help her ground herself in the moment and not get herself worked up again. “Take some deep breaths before you tell me the rest.” 

Shakily, Sayuri began to take long, drawn-out breaths. After three or four, she was calmer. “You know,” her father said to bring her attention back to him, “Anger isn’t inherently evil. It’s a regular emotion like sadness, joy, or excitement. It’s okay for you to feel angry. Anger is only a problem if you can’t deal with it well, and you’re not the type to take your anger out unjustly or lash out in a rage. I know it’s hard not to associate your anger with what happened in the Mist Village, but it’s different now. This is our home; we won’t be persecuted for our kekkei genkai here.”

“But if I hadn’t snapped that day _ ,  _ then—”

“Sayuri.” Her father’s tone was firm. She knew why; they’d had this conversation several times before. His palms curled into a tighter grip on her shoulders than the leisurely, comforting hold he had moments ago. “You must stop blaming yourself for us having to flee. You were a child. You can’t keep shouldering responsibility that isn’t yours.”

Sayuri couldn’t bear to look Gorou in the eyes. Truthfully, she did want to believe him. But her doubt was a sturdy, cruel seed with roots burrowed deep in her psyche. It felt like denying reality for her to not shoulder responsibility for her mother’s death. 

“...Sorry. I’ll try not to.” That was all Sayuri could weakly muster. She was a lousy liar, and they both knew it. Her “trying” would just manifest in her not talking about it with him for a little while, which was par for the course. Gorou sighed and released his grip on her shoulders.

“No, you don’t need to apologize. You’re already stressed, and it’s not fair for me to try and impart an important lesson on you when you’re overwhelmed. Go ahead and finish telling me what happened,” Gorou reassured her. He backed away and sat down on the soft, sky-blue couch once again. He put on an impressively convincing smile. It almost felt like that little confrontation didn’t happen. It was enough to convince Sayuri to continue her story.

“Well, um,” she hesitated while gathering her thoughts, “Sakura said what she said, and after that is a little fuzzy, but Sasuke said something to her. Then we walked away, and I think he turned around to talk to me about something, and I accidentally walked into him. He saw the blood on my hands from me trying to calm down, and he dropped me off at the Academy’s infirmary. He went and got Naruto after that, I think,” she recounted.

“So, he was there when you panicked. It’s hard enough to have a panic attack, let alone around unfamiliar people. Did you feel more rattled with him around?”

Sayuri shook her head.

“No, I don’t think he changed anything one way or another. Come to think of it, he was actually pretty calm about it. I don’t think he likes to get too close with people, so I was kind of surprised he didn’t take off running or something. I felt really vulnerable at that moment, and I guess he could tell.”

“Sasuke likely knows pretty well how you feel. I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t suffer from panic attacks or post-traumatic stress.” Shiso seemed to sense Sayuri’s lack of energy and began to rub herself against her owner’s legs in the hopes of lifting her spirits as she listened to Gorou. “The older ninjas aren’t really supposed to talk about this since it’s really only Sasuke’s business, but I think it’s something important to keep in mind as you’re on the same team together. His whole clan was annihilated about a year after we got here. His older brother, Itachi, was the one who slew them all. No one really knows the details or has any idea why outside of Sasuke and Itachi, of course.”

Sayuri had to find a seat, the revelation shaking her more than she anticipated despite her suspicions during his introduction. She swallowed a lump in her throat and said, “I had a feeling something awful happened to his family. Just the way he talked about it felt too familiar. That someone he said he needed to destroy must be Itachi, then.”

“Most likely, yes. And Naruto’s parents were lost when he was only a baby. I don’t know very much about that as we weren’t in the village when that happened. But, your teammates have suffered in ways very similar to you, Sayuri. I’m sure you’re not as comfortable with them as you would be with your friends, but you shouldn’t lose hope. Naruto and Sasuke may even come to understand you in ways that Hisoka, Masashi, or even Hinata couldn’t.”

Sayuri allowed herself to sink even further into the loveseat arranged next to the couch. This was a lot to take in all at once. Her head was struggling to swim through this onslaught of new information. After a minute of letting everything Gorou said sink in, Sayuri suddenly sat upright.

"But, Dad, none of anything you just told me about them is gonna matter if I fail. There's a sixty-six percent chance I'm going to be sent back to the Academy,” she said. “What does it matter if we understand each other in ways we couldn’t imagine if we end up getting separated?”

“Are you being tested individually or together?” Gorou asked.

“Together. We have to meet at the training grounds at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, and Kakashi-sensei told us to bring our ninja gear,” Sayuri answered.

“Excellent. I think knowing more about your teammates will actually be a considerable advantage tomorrow. I won’t say much else other than that; I can’t be unfair here by giving you tips. That aside, on the topic of your ninja gear, I have something for you.” 

Gorou rose to his feet and crossed the room to enter the kitchen. He rifled around in a drawer for a few moments and returned to the living room with his hands full. He held a package wrapped in brown paper in his left hand and a bundle of corked, drinking gourds in a mesh bag in the other. The four gourds were each roughly palm-sized. Sayuri’s eyes lit up at the sight of them. “The carrying belts I had customized for you came in today.”

Sayuri sprang out of the loveseat with renewed energy. She clambered over to her father, and Gorou offered Sayuri the bag to allow her to pick out each equipment piece herself.

The first piece she got her hands on was the relatively thick scroll-carrying belt that would be fastened around her waist. Sayuri ran her fingers over the beige leather material. It was surprisingly sturdy and seemed like it would last through a fair amount of rough-and-tumble instances.

The other set she picked out from the bag was thinner and intended to attach the bamboo bottles it came with to her arms and hide them in her billowing sleeves _. I guess literally having a trick up my sleeve isn’t a bad idea,  _ Sayuri thought to herself as she buckled the straps around her forearms. The straps met a nice balance of being flexible yet resilient. They didn’t feel as though they would come loose or make her arms go numb from lack of circulation.

“Can’t forget these, either,” Gorou said. He extended his other hand to Sayuri. She quickly fastened the belt around her waist and took the netted bag from her father’s hand. The gourds were hand-painted with lilies, suns, stars, and pansies. Sayuri’s eyes went wide with awe as she held the gourds tightly.

“Mom painted these. I...I didn’t know we had these. We left so suddenly, I…” Emotion overtook her as she tried to adequately express her overwhelming gratitude. Gorou smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. He ruffled her hair and gently pulled her into his chest for a side-hug. 

“I have my ways,” he said with an almost chilling lightness to his voice. Sayuri wrapped her arms around him, too caught up in her whirlwind of adoration to notice anything amiss. “Well, now you have  _ all _ your ninja gear. A Fukuhara would be remiss to not have water on them at all times, and now you have plenty. Do you still feel like you’re gonna fail?"

Sayuri wiped the tears away from her eyes as she gave a gentle shake of her head. 

"I feel more confident, but I'm still worried," she admitted. "I think I’m going to train for a little. I’ll probably feel better after that." Sayuri scuttled away from her father and towards the front door to put her sandals back on. 

"Good idea, but don’t wear yourself out too much. And don’t forget," Gorou said, “I say farewell, though we shall meet again.” Sayuri stopped in her tracks and smiled as he recited the first half of their clan's parting phrase. She looked over her shoulder and said the responding line,

"As all rivers flow downstream in the end." The shared phrase felt powerful enough to reframe Sayuri’s nerves. No matter what happened tomorrow, she knew she would see her father on the other side of this obstacle, smiling—and that was enough for her. _ Everything will be fine.  _ And out the door, she went.

  
  


* * *

The sky was painted a beautiful violet as Team Seven gathered together at the training grounds. The sun was still sleeping peacefully; thus, the moon was their overseer. The early birds seemed to be the only sign of life at this hour outside of the three genin. They convened at the center of the training ground that Kakashi had specified. 

Naruto looked as though he was sleep-walking. He extended his hand as his eyes could barely stay open, yawning and mumbling out something that resembled a good morning. Sayuri appeared slightly sleepy still, but as though she would likely perk up a little after she had time to wake up a little bit more. Sasuke looked as though he did this every day, and chances were, he actually did. All three came prepared with bags and backpacks filled with their ninja gear. 

Sayuri decided to sit after the first hour of waiting for her sensei to show up. Naruto followed suit roughly an hour later, but Sasuke stood alert and attentive without fail. Sasuke stood behind Sayuri at her left side, and Naruto was seated across from Sasuke at Sayuri’s right. About twenty minutes after Naruto sat down, he looked over his shoulder to his teammates and asked,

“You guys don’t think he tricked us, do you? I mean, he said it’s a survival exercise. Maybe he’s testing us to see how we survive without him.”

“He said it’s an exercise the  _ four  _ of us will do together. Why don’t you count how many of us there are right now and then think about that a little more? Or do you need help counting that high?” Sasuke said.  _ Ouch, that was unnecessary. And here I thought he was a morning person. Or does Naruto really make him that cranky regardless of the time of day?  _ Sayuri thought to herself. Naruto leaped to his feet at Sasuke’s scorn.

“What the hell is your problem? I just asked a question!” 

“Yeah, and it was a stupid question, so you got the answer you deserved.”

“Guys,” Sayuri said, craning her neck backward to look at them, “can you back down for today, please? I really don’t think us fighting each other is going to help us out.”

“But Sasuke started it!” Naruto protested.

“A-And I’m finishing it,” Sayuri insisted, though her nervousness at confronting them undermined any authoritative tone she could’ve mustered. Hisoka and Masashi’s comments yesterday about her polishing up on her de-escalation tactics were ringing more accurate than ever right now. "Sensei will be here any minute. We should try and make a better impression than we did yesterday, don’t you think?"  _ Not like it could be much worse anyhow.  _

"And whose fault was our poor impression yesterday?" Sasuke asked sharply. Naruto's face scrunched up in annoyance as he opened his mouth to speak, but Sayuri beat him to the punch.

"It was all of our faults. We should’ve intervened, and we didn’t,” she said. 

“Whatever,” Sasuke grumbled. The two boys’ eyes met yet again, and by nothing short of a miracle, they looked away from one another without a remark or even a glare.  _ Okay, that's a step in the right direction,  _ Sayuri noted. 

About ten more minutes of awkward silence passed before Naruto's stomach rumbled. Sayuri's expression twisted into one of discomfort as she remembered her own hunger. Not wanting to dwell on it and make herself feel worse, she scrambled to find a distraction suitable for all of them.

"Why don't we just find something to do? I think if we just sit here bored and hungry, we're just gonna feel worse and get crankier at each other," she said. Naruto’s spirits lifted a bit at her idea.

“As long as we’re not sitting here with nothing better to do, I’m in. What do you have in mind?”

Sayuri caught Sasuke’s glance at the two of them. He was probably bored as well, though whether he’d actually participate in whatever activity Sayuri came up with was a toss-up. She shrugged at Naruto and said,

“Maybe we could play a game? It probably sounds kind of lame, but I don’t want to risk doing extra training and getting tired out before our test.” 

“Good idea, I like games!” Naruto plopped down across from Sayuri and clapped his hands together ceremoniously. His grin stretched from ear-to-ear, “What game should we play?”

“I was thinking  _ Two Truths and a Lie _ , or maybe  _ Truth or Dare _ ?” Sayuri offered. Naruto brought a hand to his chin, and he closed his eyes to mull over their options. He reminded Sayuri of an old man trying to use his sage-like wisdom to make an ever-important decision. As he did so, Sasuke discreetly took a seat near the two of them as if he was participating. He didn’t say a word.

“I don’t think we can do a whole lotta good dare stuff since we’re out in the middle of a training field, and just playing truth is boring. But I’m not really the best fibber, either, so I think Two Truths and a Lie is out. Any other ideas?” Naruto said. 

“I guess we could make up our own game. My Dad told me last night that knowing our teammates well will be a considerable advantage today, so I was just sort of looking for games that helped us get to know each other.”

“Why don’t we just ask each other whatever we want to know? And whoever answers the question gets to ask the next question, like a rotation,” Sasuke suggested. Sayuri and Naruto’s heads snapped to him immediately. Sayuri’s eyebrows raised at him, and she could only muster a surprised blink as an answer.  _ Maybe Naruto is on to something with Kakashi-sensei tricking us after all. It wouldn’t be the first time someone transformed into Sasuke and fooled me.  _ Sayuri thought to herself.

Naruto squinted at Sasuke skeptically and said,

“You  **seriously** think I'm just gonna believe you wanna play a game with us? You're probably just looking for an excuse to be mean or ruin the game.”

Sasuke scoffed at Naruto’s accusation and averted his gaze from his teammates as a blush slowly crept up his neck and spread into his cheeks. He folded his arms stiffly and retorted,

“No, don’t be ridiculous. Sayuri’s dad is probably a jonin, so we’d be stupid to not listen to his advice. It’s strategic, even if the method of doing it is childish. Nothing else.” 

“Well, okay, if you say so…” Naruto said despite the apparent distrust in his voice. Sayuri’s face softened into her usual calm smile at Sasuke’s reaction to Naruto’s questioning. It was cute to see him want to be included yet reluctant to admit it or ask to join. He was probably so used to being fawned over and dragged into everything by their classmates that this was a bit unfamiliar to him.

“I like your question rotation idea, Sasuke. Do you want to go first?” Sayuri asked. Sasuke’s posture relaxed at Sayuri’s question. He unfolded his arms and allowed them to casually lay in his lap, though tinges of his embarrassed flush still remained. 

“Fine,” he said nonchalantly. Sasuke’s gaze was as intense as ever as he scanned his teammates. He lifted his arms from his lap and propped them up on his knees as he shifted his seating position. He appeared as though he struggled to decide what to say, his brow furrowing and his fingers interlocking into a steeple that laid against his chin. Naruto kept leaning in towards Sasuke expectantly as if the anticipation were driving him crazy. His eyes were wide with exasperation, and Sayuri was impressed that Naruto hadn’t just given in and shouted, “Come on already!” yet. 

After another moment of deliberation, Sasuke finally asked, “Why did you have to leave the Hidden Mist Village, Sayuri?”

Sayuri’s smile crumbled apart like a poorly-made sandcastle. Her entire body seemed to deflate at Sasuke’s question. Her eyes cast to the ground.

“Oh.” Sayuri’s voice was strained and breathy.  _ Straight to the point, I see.  _

Now it was Naruto’s turn to cross his arms and shoot a glance at Sasuke that was somewhere in-between irritated and exhausted. Sasuke blanched a little at Sayuri’s reaction to his question but kept his composure relatively well. 

“Jeez, Sasuke. You really had to go with that question first? You couldn’t just ask her her favorite color or somethin’?” Naruto said, his tone drained of any previous enthusiasm. Sasuke’s nostrils flared as he huffed in response to Naruto’s criticism. 

“Why bother sugar-coating the important questions with useless ones first? I want to know the answer, I asked," Sasuke reasoned with an edge to his tone. 

"Well, yeah, but still," Naruto protested. "Ya can't just ask someone stuff like that outta nowhere." Sasuke glared at the outspoken blond. It was a little ironic that Naruto, of all people, was lecturing Sasuke on what was socially acceptable in a talking game.

"I-It’s okay, Naruto. It's not the first time someone's asked me. It's only natural to be curious, but...it's just...I'm not sure if I’m ready to share that with you guys yet. I just...need to feel more comfortable first. You understand, right?" Sayuri said. Sasuke shifted his attention to the kunoichi and shrugged, 

“Whatever. You owe me the answer when you’re ready, then." Sasuke's solution to her hesitation was a bit bittersweet. He wasn't letting her off the hook for her answer, but Sayuri decided to focus on appreciating his patience. Or at least what she interpreted as patience. “You’re next,” Sasuke reminded her. 

"Oh! Right, um," Sayuri paused to think momentarily and then asked, "Naruto, when's your birthday?" 

“My birthday is October 10th! I’ll be thirteen! What about you?” Naruto’s pep returned once again after dodging the likely depressing topic of Sayuri and her father fleeing the Mist Village.

“My birthday already passed. I turned thirteen on February 19th. When’s your birthday, Sasuke?” Sayuri asked. 

“July 23rd,” Sasuke said. 

“Oh, hey, that’s coming up kinda soon, isn’t it? It’s late May right now, after all. What do you want for your birthday?” 

Sasuke stared blankly at Sayuri instead of actually answering her question.  _ Uh-oh...did I say something wrong?  _ She shot a confused glance towards Naruto, who could only shrug in mutual bewilderment towards her. 

“You’re not serious, are you?” The dark-haired boy finally spoke after another moment or so of awkward quietness shared amongst them all. Sayuri was pretty sure there was a bit of derision in his tone, and that only made her feel more unnerved by his previous silence. 

“U-um, yeah, I am. I just...I don’t know; I figured it made sense to ask since we’re on the same team. Time will probably go by pretty fast, so might as well be prepared, right?” Sayuri struggled to string together her reasoning in a coherent sentence as she averted eye contact. Sasuke’s intimidating aura did not cease despite her not being on the receiving end of his piercing stare. 

“Huh.” That was all the dark-haired boy had to offer as feedback to Sayuri’s reasoning. Sasuke’s posture slackened a tad. His shoulders relaxed, and he sat in such a way that allowed his lower back to slouch. He leaned his chin against his fist leisurely as he idly twisted a few blades of grass between his fingers. “So, my turn again, right?" 

_ Well, so much for that. Maybe he's not picky when it comes to presents. I guess I'll find out…  _ Sayuri mentally lamented.

As Team Seven asked questions in their designated rotation, a pattern of the types of questions asked depending on the asker became apparent. Naruto liked to ask questions about food, games, comics, and cool jutsus he wanted to know more about. Sasuke's questions were all pragmatic. He asked about his teammate’s greatest strengths, greatest weaknesses, motivations, and training regiments, etc. Sayuri's questions generally stayed in the realm of personality and interests. She asked her teammates who their best friends were, what else they might want to do if they didn't become a ninja, their favorite quality in themselves, their favorite attributes in others, etc. Time rushed by as they chatted and learned more about each other.

“Good morning, kiddos.” The sun was high in the sky now, and though Sayuri didn’t have a watch on her, she was reasonably sure it was sometime between ten and eleven a.m. The morning was all but gone at this point. But lo and behold, there was their sensei arriving at least five hours late to their so-called “mission” with a backpack of his own. 

Naruto sprang upward into a standing position the moment he heard Kakashi’s voice. He gritted his teeth and pointed directly at the jonin. His eyes flared with annoyance.

"Do you have any idea how late you are?! We've been waiting for you for hours!" The agitated blonde said.

"Sorry about that. You see, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way here,” Kakashi explained. If that was meant to be a joke, it didn’t go over well, to say the least. The jonin was met with a frustrated glare, a cold, accusatory look, and a confused glance from each of his genin, respectively. He awkwardly cleared his throat and then made his way towards the three training logs in the training field center. He fished an alarm clock out of his bag and set it down on the top of the center log. 

"Alright. The clock is set for noon," Kakashi said. He reached into his hip pouch and pulled out two silver bells that each dangled from a string. “Your assignment is simple. You just have to take these bells from me. That’s it. If you can’t get a bell by noon, you go without lunch. You’ll be tied to those training posts, and you’ll watch while I eat my lunch in front of you.” 

Sayuri grimaced at the mention of food and laid her hands against her stomach.  _ Of course, he lied just to make this harder on us. I'm so hungry; I could eat a whole cow right now if he let me. _

“Why are there only two bells? There’s three of us, so what does that mean for whoever doesn’t get one?” Sasuke asked. 

“There are only two bells so that at least one of you ends up tied to the post. Anyone who isn’t able to capture a bell is ultimately disqualified and sent back to the Academy as well. If you want to pass, you need to seriously fight me for it. Use any weapons you have, no matter how deadly they are. If you’re not coming at me with all you’ve got, you’ve already lost.”

Sayuri’s hands instinctively fell to the gourds fastened at her waist. She'd only used her kekkei genkai under careful watch from her father and some teachers at the Academy since leaving the Hidden Mist. Even though she knew she was free to safe to display her abilities here without persecution, it still felt achingly wrong to use them against someone in her village. She felt a frown tug along her face unconsciously, and she forced it away as quickly as she could. 

“That’s real risky coming from the jonin who couldn’t dodge an eraser yesterday,” Naruto said with a lackadaisical and teasing air to his tone. He began to laugh at his own joke while dread settled in Sayuri’s stomach.  _ Why does he have to provoke  _ **_everyone?_ **

Kakashi quickly followed up with a perceptive, analyzing look before responding to Naruto cooly,

“That’s quite fitting coming from the class clown. The weakest links usually get ignored as the low-score losers they are unless they mouth off with something they mistakenly think is clever. Let me know when you come up with something original.”

Naruto’s initially unconcerned face twisted into outrage. His at-ease posture stiffened into a determined pose as he puffed out his chest and clenched his fists. He scowled at his sensei, and a barely-audible growl escaped him. He vaguely reminded Sayuri of a cat trying to make itself look more threatening. “We’ll begin on my mark.”

A final snarl of frustration erupted from Naruto as he drew a kunai from his holster abruptly and charged at Kakashi with the blade held over his head. Sayuri jumped out of his way instinctively, everything moving too fast for her to comprehend what was happening, let alone stop him. He was an orange blur barrelling towards their sensei with no inhibition and likely no plan.

Sayuri only blinked, and everything was over as soon as it started. Kakashi was standing behind Naruto, his one hand laid overtop of his students’, and the other fisted in Naruto’s hair. The blade of Naruto’s kunai was aimed directly at the back of his head. All Kakashi had to do was push, and it would be all over for the knuckle-headed ninja. And Kakashi made it seem effortless; not a speck of dirt, hair out of place, or bead of sweat anywhere in sight. 

“What’s the rush for? I didn’t even say start yet.” Kakashi’s words seemed like they should have been reprimanding, but they only had the same unaffected tone since yesterday. 

Sayuri backed away from her entangled teammate and sensei. Kakashi released Naruto from his deadly grip. Naruto stumbled and tried to get his bearings as quickly as possible.

“But I will say, you do get bonus points for not holding back. If you keep this up, I may even start to like you kids a bit,” Kakashi continued. “Ready?”

_ This is about to get real. What do I do? Naruto probably doesn’t have a plan, but Sasuke might.  _ Sayuri’s attention panned quickly from Kakashi to Naruto to Sasuke as she ran through her thought process with the speed of a bullet train. Her gaze locked with Sasuke’s immediately, almost to the point of surprising her. Sasuke jerked his head to the side, gesturing for her to follow him. He mouthed “trees” at her, and she nodded to confirm she understood where to meet him.

“Start!” 


End file.
